Objects

This is one of the unpublished versions of the illustrations for the book "Ręka umarłej" (Hand of a Deceased), reprinting autobiographical camp pieces by Maria Zarębińska-Broniewska. The illustration was prepared for a text published for the first time in this edition: a letter by Zarębińska-Broniewska to her cousin, Jadwiga Henisz. The swastika of the Third Reich, the mourning branch, the ruins and the symbolic sun and the construction of a newly erected building (symbolising the rebuilding of life after the war) shown in the drawing synthesise the content of the letter written in June or July 1945 in Łódź. Zarębińska-Broniewska reported in it mainly on her own fate after she was arrested by the Gestapo in April 1943. The letter was (as stated in the book) found by Zarębińska's daughter, Maja (Maria) Zarębińska-Pijanowska, in 1969.

The version of the drawing finally selected for printing was published on page 104, above the text of the letter (printed on pages 104-119). The original of the published illustration was not in Olga Siemaszko's archive. It differs from the present work in several minor elements, the most important of which are the location of the swastika (on the helmet) and the shape of the branch.

The edges of the drawing show an underdrawing of the square marking the closing lines of the composition.

Przemysław Kaniecki